The United Kingdom’s Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, says he has been inundated with anti-gay comments since being appointed to the role three weeks ago.
Streeting was named Defence Secretary after Prime Minister Andy Burnham formed his cabinet. Streeting had previously quit his ministerial role in health, saying he could no longer support former leader Sir Keir Starmer. Under Burnham, he has returned to the leadership team.
Speaking during a recording of the Iain Dale All Talk podcast at the Edinburgh Fringe, Streeting revealed he had faced more homophobic comments in the past three weeks than at any other point in his life.
In the interview, Streeting said there had been an “unbelievable volume” of negative commentary from people who could not cope with a gay man leading the country’s armed forces.
“I have experienced more online homophobia in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life.
“An unbelievable volume, because people cannot cope with the idea that a gay person might lead the armed forces of the United Kingdom.”
Streeting said that being the first openly gay Defence Secretary had been largely overlooked by much of the media.
“Being the first openly gay defence secretary has been almost entirely unremarked upon in the media,” he said.
Streeting said he looked forward to proving people in the “dark corners of the internet” wrong.
“I am proud of the fact that in my lifetime we’ve gone from gay people not being able to serve in the military to a gay defence secretary,” he said.
The 43-year-old politician has been a Member of Parliament since 2015 and previously served as a local government councillor.
England and Wales decriminalised homosexuality in 1967, but Scotland retained similar laws until 1981. Northern Ireland changed its laws a year later. LGBTQ+ people have been permitted to serve in the UK military since 2000.
